Henson Joins Elite With Victory No. 700

Lou Henson picked up his 700th victory Thursday night as New Mexico State defeated Utah State, 55-52, at Las Cruces, N.M., behind Charles Gosa, who had 26 points and 12 rebounds.

Henson, 67, became the 13th Division I coach to reach the 700 milestone. His overall record in 36 seasons is 700-352. Henson began his career at Hardin-Simmons in 1962, coached for 10 seasons at New Mexico State, for 21 years at Illinois and returned to New Mexico State last season.

Gosa scored the Aggies’ first 15 points of the second half. He and Billy Keys, who scored 19 points, produced all of the Aggies’ 26 second-half points.

New Mexico State, 19-9 overall and 11-4 in the Big West Conference, held Utah State (15-11, 7-7) scoreless in the final 3:12.

No. 9 Cincinnati 64, South Florida 53--Steve Logan scored 24 points to lead the Bearcats (24-4, 11-4) over the Bulls (13-14, 6-9) in a Conference USA game at Tampa, Fla.

No. 12 Utah 75, Texas El Paso 70--Andre Miller scored 17 points as the Runnin’ Utes (23-4, 13-0) defeated the Miners (16-10, 8-5) in a Western Athletic Conference game at Salt Lake City to tie a school record with their 18th consecutive victory.

The Utes got a scare with 34.9 seconds left when Miller, a preseason All-American, fell hard to the court holding his wrist. The extent of the injury wasn’t immediately known.

No. 21 New Mexico 85, Brigham Young 64--Kenny Thomas scored 28 points to help the Lobos (22-6, 9-4) to a WAC victory over the Cougars (10-15, 5-8) at Provo, Utah.

Minnesota 62, No. 23 Purdue 48--Quincy Lewis scored 27 points to help the Golden Gophers (16-9, 7-8) to a Big Ten victory over the Boilermakers (19-10, 7-8) at Minneapolis.

WOMEN

Sophomore guard Rasheeda Clark scored 17 points to lead top-seeded Pepperdine (20-7) to a 61-57 victory over eighth-seeded San Francisco (7-20) in the first round of the West Coast Conference tournament at Santa Clara. Third-seeded St. Mary’s (24-6) rolled to a 79-65 victory over sixth-seeded Loyola Marymount (8-19) to end the Lions’ season. . . . Amanda Wilson scored 21 points to lead No. 3 Louisiana Tech (23-2, 11-0) to a 98-39 Sun Belt Conference rout of South Alabama (7-17, 2-9) at Mobile, Ala. . . . Becky Hammon scored 42 points and became the most prolific scorer in WAC history as she led No. 4 Colorado State (28-1, 13-0) to a 75-68 victory over Nevada Las Vegas (15-10, 6-7) at Las Vegas. . . . Erin Buescher scored 23 points to lead No. 21 UC Santa Barbara (22-3, 14-0) to an 81-65 Big West victory over UC Irvine (10-15, 6-8) at Irvine. . . . Dominique Canty scored 24 points for No. 24 Alabama (18-9) in an 82-71 win over South Carolina (11-16) in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament at Chattanooga, Tenn.